Protective cover for flat articles such as phonograph records



April 1965 KARL-HEINZ HONSEL 3,176,905

PROTECTIVE COVER FOR FLAT ARTICLES SUCH AS PHONOGRAPH RECORDS Filed May 28, 1963 Attorney United States Patent 3,17 6305 PROTECTIVE COVER FOR FLAT ARTICLES SUCH AS PHQNOGRAPH RECORDS Karl-Heinz Honsel, Herforder Strasse 285, Bielefeld, Germany Filed May 28, 1963, Ser. No. 283,797 1 Claim. (Ql. 229-68) My invention relates to protective covers for flat articles, such as phonograph records, and more particularly to such protective covers which are composed of an outer pouch or envelope made of paper or an equivalent wrapping material and an inner lining made of plastic material such as polyethylene.

The known protective covers of said type have been manufactured by first finishing a flat pouch or envelope from paper or equivalent wrapping material and thereafter folding thereinto a thin sheet of plastic material to form a lining. While the pouches or envelopes could be manufactured on machines, the easily damageable thin plastic sheet was inserted thereinto and glued thereto by manual operation. Such manual operation was evidently inefficient and the glueing of the plastic sheet material, particularly polyethylene, to the outer paper or equivalent wrapping material was unreliable because these materials do not stick safely and clearly together. Furthermore, as well known, any thin plastic sheet material after being cut off from a supply roll is subject to tensile stresses which cause the same to curl and this produced undesirable creases in the finished cover.

It is the principal object of my invention to avoid the beforesaid disadvantages and to provide a smooth and resistant protective cover for phonograph records or the like, which is lined with plastic material and can be completely, efliciently and safely manufactured on machines.

According to my invention, 1 do not make the lining by folding thin plastic sheet material into a flat pouch or envelope but I insert thereinto a transversely cut off flattened section of a preferably thin-walled plastic tube, said section having a width substantially equalling the width of the pouch or envelope and a length substantially equalling the depth thereof. Such cut off section is free of stress and will smoothly fit into the outer pouch or envelope. The pouch or envelope is advantageously made from a substantially rectangular blank cut from paper or an equivalent wrapping material, said blank being folded over a transverse fold dividing the blank into an upper and a lower half, the latter being provided with laterally extending laps folding over and embracing the said section of plastic tubular material previously placed on and advantageously tacked by glueing to the lower half of the blank, said laps being glued to the underside of the upper half of the blank when the same is folded over the lower half thereof, thereby leaving unobstructed and continuous outer surfaces upon the cover to receive imprints of any kind.

The said and other objects of my invention will be more fully understood from the following specification when read with the accompanying drawing in which one embodiment of my invention is illustrated.

in the drawing FIG. 1 shows in front view a substantially rectangular blank from which my new pouch may be manufactured, said blank being made from paper or other equivalent wrapping material,

FIG. 2 shows the same blank in front view in an intermediate stage of manufacture of the protective cover, and

FIG. 3 shows a cross section along line IHIII of FIG. 1.

The outer pouch or envelope of the protective cover is manufactured from a blank 1 made of paper or other suitable wrapping material. This blank is substantially 3,1765% Patented Apr. 6, 1965 ice of rectangular shape and is transversely divided by a fold edge 6 into congruent halfs la and 1b to be folded one over the other. The lower half 1b is provided with laterally extending laps 4a, 4b. A flattened transversely cut off portion 2 of a tubular plastic material is placed upon and covers the lower half lb of the blank to form the lining in the finished pouch or envelope and is tacked thereto near its open ends by glueing strips 3c and 3d provided on said lower half.

The said laps 4a, 4b are folded inwardly over the tubular lining 2 as illustrated in FIG. 2 and the downwardly folded upper half 1a of the blank is connected to the inwardly folded laps by glueing strips 5:: and 5b. This leaves smooth and uninterrupted outer surfaces upon said halfs 101, lb to receive continuous and unimpaired imprints of instructive or advertising character. The upper half in of the blank is provided at its outer border with a transversely extending glueing strip 3a which in the finished cover tacks the tubular lining 2 near its lead in opening and possibly also with a second glueing strip 3!; to tack the other open end of the tubular lining to the pouch or envelope. While the glueing strips 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d between the plastic material and the wrapper material serve only to hold the lining in proper position upon the blank 1 and within the finished cover, the structural glueing of the finished cover is eifected by glueing together exclusively portions of the blank 1, thu avoiding any undeirable condition becaue unreliable glueing of the inner tubular plastic material to the outer wrapping material.

The lead-in opening of the tubular lining 2 which coincides with the opening of the outer pouch or envelope and the opposite opening of the tubular lining are recognizable from FIG. 3. The blank 1 may be provided with customary cut-outs 8a, 8b to expose any labels or the like on the inserted records.

The pouch according to my invention may be either a flat pouch as illustrated or a swelling pouch or bag with inwardly extending lateral folds.

It may happen that the flattened tubular material taken from a supply roll to serve as lining in the outer pouch or envelope has a smaller width than said pouch or envelope which is dimensioned to receive a phonograph record; in such case I suggest to cut the flattened tubular lining along one of its longitudinal edges.

Although I have shown and described only one embodiment of my invention, it will be well understood that the same may be otherwise embodied without departing from the principles of my invention and without avoiding the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim as my invention is:

A protective cover for flat articles particularly for phonograph records comprising a substantially rectangular blank cut from paper or an equivalent wrapping material; a transverse folding edge in said blank dividing the same into an upper and a lower half which are folded one over the other; a flattened transverse section from plastic tubular material placed upon said lower half, said section having a width substantially equalling the width of the blank and a length substantially equalling one half of the link of the blank; and laterally extending laps on the lower half of the blank, said laps folded over and embracing the said flattened tubular section and glued to the underside of the upper half of the blank.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,777,574 1/57 Brody 229-55 FOREIGN PATENTS 186,427 8/56 Austria. 1,074,356 3/54 France.

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Primary Examiner. 

